


We Can Work It Out

by SegaBarrett



Category: Bates Motel (2013)
Genre: F/M, Incest, M/M, Sibling Incest, Threesome - F/M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-17
Updated: 2016-09-17
Packaged: 2018-08-15 11:14:32
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,210
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8054140
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SegaBarrett/pseuds/SegaBarrett
Summary: Norma has a number of problems - Alex has an answer for at least one.





	We Can Work It Out

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Bates Motel, and I make no money from this.
> 
> A/N: Written for the Heroine Big Bang. Title from The Beatles.
> 
> Warnings: Incest, mentions of abuse.

Norma ran her comb down her long, silky blonde hair and let out a sigh.

Another day had begun; another day in which she hadn’t gotten enough sleep and would be walking into some kind of an ambush. She remembered when life had been simple – no, she didn’t, that was a lie. Ever since she had been a child, it had been one crisis after another, to be solved so that another could take its place.

And now a new hurdle.

Caleb was back in town.

Dylan hadn’t told her, and it wasn’t as if she didn’t understand why. But she knew, just the same. It was almost like a sixth sense, some sort of radar that she had whenever her brother was afoot.

It wasn’t the same, however.

It wasn’t that tingling fear that ran down the back of her neck, like a fly or a spider brushing tiny legs against her skin, nor was it the constant burn of an iron from years ago that never quite went out. 

Now it was just a signal, a realization: you are me and I am you, and we came from… from something that can’t be fully explained in a language anyone else would understand. 

He was back in town.

***

Norma was wearing a long, flowery dress with thick straps; she had her mother’s blue ribbon tied in her hair. She was listening but not quite hearing her brother talk to her son – to his son.

She was zoning out, considering the things she’d have to deal with regarding Norman. She needed to put him in Pine View, but where would she get the money? What would she need to do? Or would she need to shove him off to some awful place to stop him from hurting or killing someone?

No, no, she wouldn’t do that. She wouldn’t let that horrible woman send Social Services to take Norman from her. She would rather die first.

She let out a long sigh, remembering that there used to be a day when it seemed like Caleb had had the answers. How long ago had that been? 

“So I proposed to Alex Romero,” she suddenly blurted out, “To try and get health insurance.” Dylan and Caleb exchanged a look, then gazed back at her for a long moment. 

“How did that go?” Dylan asked at last. 

“It didn’t. He said no.”

“Well, did you say you only wanted to marry him for his health insurance? I’m not sure that would entirely fill me with romance and wonder.”

Norma rolled her eyes.

“Neither of the two of you even have insurance,” she shot back.

“Apparently under Obamacare you could put Dylan on since he’s under twenty-six,” Caleb supplied.

Norma stared at him and proceeded to stick her hand in the air.

“Whether I can put Dylan on my insurance is beside the point! Dylan hasn’t been in the hospital since he was…”

“I do still have that ER bill from the time the car ran me over.”

Norma stared.

“A car ran you over?”

Dylan stuck his hands in his pockets.

“Well, technically, I jumped in front of the car because this guy I was working for was about to get shot. Or something like that. It all happened really fast.”

“This is why I don’t like you working in places like this!” Norma shot back at him. “Dylan…”

“He has his own farm now,” Caleb cut in, “He’s safe now, he…”

“You shut up, Caleb Calhoun. I don’t really agree with your general definition of ‘safe’. Dylan, why can’t you go back to college?”

“Norma, come on…”

“I mean it. Dylan, you’re smart – you have your whole life ahead of you, and you could go anywhere and do anything. And now you have Emma. You don’t need to be doing this kind of stuff. I can help you.”

“You can’t exactly just get me into college, Norma. I mean, there’s a lot of stuff involved, you know… and with everything with Norman… I, okay. I’ll look into it.”

“College?” Caleb asked. “Yeah man! You can do it!” He proceeded to give Dylan a playful slap on the back. 

“Thanks?” Dylan replied.

Norma pressed her hand to her forehead. 

“Are you actually going to take this seriously, Dylan? Or am I just wasting my time?”

He threw his hands up.

“Jeez, Norma. All right, all right. I’ll look at some colleges around here. No need to make a federal case out of it.”

“I’m not making a federal case out of it, Dylan. I’m just being your mother.”

***

Now that Norma had dealt with the Caleb situation, at least as much as she currently needed to, she could turn her attention to the next issue on her agenda: that of Alexander Romero.

He had agreed to marry her, so that she could get the necessary insurance to put Norman in the institution. But what would he want in return? Did he have some kind of ulterior motive?

Not that Norma really had time to think about that right now – whatever she might be walking into, she had to go ahead and take the plunge for Norman’s sake.

And there was something about Alex that she instinctively trusted, despite her normal wariness around men. He seemed to really care for her, to want… want what? To take care of her, maybe. To make her feel safe. 

She hadn’t felt safe in a long while, not with all this happening with Norman – ever since she had picked him up from County he had been different, suspicious. And then he had taken the gun… 

Norma didn’t want to think about that, not now. Pine View was a nice place, it was a safe place for Norman. He would get the help that he needed and it would be, finally, out of Norma’s hands. She would be safe. He would be safe.

***

“You may kiss the bride.”

Norma blushed bright red as Alex Romero pressed his lips against hers. 

She could never, ever tell him just how much it had meant to her, just how much joy floated into her chest as she’d placed the ring on his finger. Because, wasn’t he just doing this to be nice? To help out? Or maybe there was some ulterior motive, just one that hadn’t been uncovered yet. 

She couldn’t show how much this meant to her, because every time Norma had ever let herself believe in something good, it had been shattered before her or turned to something wicked, something evil. She couldn’t let that happen – she would play it flippant, she would pretend it was all fake.

She wouldn’t let him in, wouldn’t let him in, wouldn’t let him…

***

His breath was on her neck and she was kissing him, she was diving into him.

He was asking if she was sure, if she wanted to do this, and she realized with a start that for the first time in her life, she really was sure about this.

Norma wasn’t sure what tomorrow would bring – there was so much to worry about, Norman and Dylan and Caleb and Emma and Norma herself, but tonight, she could be safe.

Safe in Alex Romero’s arms.

They had blankets wrapped around them, and she felt warm.

“Alex,” she mumbled, rubbing her eyes. It all seemed like it had been a dream, or maybe the thirty-eight years before it had been a dream, she wasn’t sure.

He was still asleep beside her, lying on his side, and she curled up behind him and draped her arms over him, snuggling up to his back. She breathed in.

She liked the smell of him, that musk and sweat and safety. It would be nice if they didn’t have to talk about any of what it meant just yet. What did it mean? He seemed to like to look at her… He smiled when she smiled.

But she remembered how it had been before. When John had extended his hand and she had thought that he was saving her from everything, only to find that salvation was a crummy one bedroom apartment, a waitress job, and barely any sleep as she cared for a baby who she loved but who looked more and more like her brother with each passing day. She remembered how it had been when Sam had extended his hand and promised to take her away from it all, only to find that it was the same hand he used to beat her with when she didn’t live up to whatever fantasy he’d have of married life and being waited on hand and foot.

Norma slowly rolled off the bed, sighing at the slight ache in her groin – Alex certainly wasn’t a small man by any stretch of the imagination, and while he’d been gentle, it had also been a while since she had done anything like this… and the last time, she had been drunk and the guy hadn’t had much to speak of.

That hadn’t actually been very long ago, Norma remembered – the reconciliation with Caleb at the end of a day of stupid, reckless choices which she’d regretted. She had spent a day trying to be everything other than what she was, which was a mother. Norman and Dylan’s mother.

With everything that came with it, all the secrets and fears and…

Norma had had to face the music, and she’d been glad that she had. It was a different Norma Bates who had walked down the aisle (hypothetically speaking) with Alex than the one who had fled into the night at the thought of facing her brother.

She stretched out her limbs and let herself think about doing that every night.

The thought was strangely comforting – it’d be nice to have a routine. But what did Alex even like? Was he that kind of guy? Or would he be too wrapped up in work and he’d usually just want to come home and sleep off the events of the day? Would they even have time to, with all of the chaos that was always barreling in their direction?

She ought to savor this moment.

Norma tried not to think about it, however. Because what good could come from overanalyze a moment of happiness?

She made her way downstairs and set to work cooking breakfast.

She could remember doing this before. For John Massett, when he’d awoken after their honeymoon and tried to grope at her, even though she was seven months pregnant and it was the last thing on her mind. For Sam, who’d awoken and began grumbling about how much everything had cost, not even looking at his blushing bride, before eventually warming up – or so she had told herself, so she had hoped. 

She shook off Sam and shook off John. This was a new day and a new husband. 

In some way she knew this man even though she hadn’t dated him, hadn’t touched him really before standing in front of God and state and saying that this was the man she wanted to spend the rest of her life with.

She thought it was funny that maybe, just maybe, her mother would have said something about this being the way things ought to be, that that was the way it was back in the “good old days”. 

She wondered if it had been that way for her parents. Had they looked into each other’s eyes and giggled sometimes? Had they lain in each other’s arms and felt safe, once upon a time? And if so, what had happened to those people by the time Caleb and Norma had begun to grow, had begun to look around them?

Norma felt a pang of guilt. What she had seen, what she had hated… had it been so far off from the things Dylan and Norman had seen, growing up in a house with her and Sam? Hadn’t she hidden in a closet with Norman the way she had hidden under a porch with Caleb? 

What if her sons were doomed to walk the same path that she had? Would Norman fight with his wife one day while his children hid, or would Dylan slink away from a violent partner with a child of his own?

It seemed impossible to wrap her mind around that thought. Norman was eighteen, and Dylan was certainly a grown man, but the idea of either of them with a wife and child seemed alien or foreign; it seemed like something from an alternate universe that she couldn’t imagine herself in. 

The sound of footsteps cut her out of her thought process. She turned around and found herself looking at Alex.

“Hey,” she said with a smile. “I made you breakfast.”

She could feel his nose nuzzling her neck, could feel his breath in her ear.

She felt safe.

***

Caleb was hiding out at some sketchy motel up the road, and Chick Hogan was looking for him.

He’d managed to prey upon Norma’s weakness, her love of keeping things pretty. 

And then he had made his offer. Well, not an offer exactly, nor exactly a threat. A deal, perhaps, like a deal with the devil. 

Why had he decided to come back? Was her big brother that much of an idiot that he couldn’t stay away from a man who was hell-bent on trying to kill him for real and imagined wrongs?

She could remember Chick’s breath on her neck. It had reminded her… No, she wouldn’t think about it, wouldn’t think about the last man who had stood in her kitchen and threatened her and what she had done, what she had had to do in order to escape him.

What she might have to do again.

Chick had asked her if it would feel good to stab Caleb… if she had a knife.

There were people who would have said “yes”, and Norma didn’t know if it made her right or wrong that she had said “no”. 

Maybe she should call Caleb now, try to bargain with him and get him to leave. Tell him that no matter what he thought, no matter how prepared he kept saying he was, that he needed to go somewhere safer. Because there was something about the dead look in Chick’s eyes that told Norma that if he wanted Caleb dead, death would find him.

Caleb.

At least here, she could look out for him. Because in a way, she had always been his mother, too. She’d always been the one to pull Caleb by the shoulder and tell him not to do something he was dead-set on doing that would be bound to get him killed, or worse.

Maybe he would see something in her eyes that would let him know the moment when he would need to flee for his life.

But that was a scary thought – because while her brother left, while he always left, he had never been one to run.

***

Norma awoke the next morning to the sound of her doorbell ringing. She gently pushed her husband to the side – that was going to take a while to get used to, the idea of having a husband who wasn’t useless John or horrible Sam – and got up to answer it. 

At least if it was Chick come calling again, she could refer him to her intimidating husband. Her husband.

She smiled at the thought. She felt safe. At least for right now – what if Chick went to Alex and tried to make her situation with Caleb seem… different than it was?

She took a deep breath – Alex was not the kind of man to accuse his wife of cheating on him with her own brother. It just wasn’t in his nature; he was far too logical and rational. He investigated.

But that left Norma with the worry about what he would find if he did.

Maybe he wouldn’t understand, or maybe he would think he had gotten in over his head when he agreed to this marriage…

But she didn’t have time to think about that right now. She had to figure out who was ringing her damn doorbell.

She walked over and pulled the door open, her heart in her throat.

It was Chick. Chick, leaning into his cane with a menacing gaze. She felt as if she’d swallowed a tennis ball – what if Chick had found Caleb already? Or what if he had come to taunt her new husband with tales of her old…what were they, exactly? Lovers? Not quite – she couldn’t believe that at thirteen she had understood the concept other than watching movies with romantic incidental music and sneaking peeks at bodice ripper novels. 

Did she understand anything more these days?

Norma’s fingers twitched a little as she opened the door wider. What was she supposed to do? Go get Alex? Tell him everything? Let Chick tell him everything? Slam the door in Chick’s face or kill him?

Lead him to Caleb’s hiding spot and let one of them win out?

“What do you want?” she asked in a quiet voice.

“You know what I want, Norma – or rather, who I want. Why are you protecting him?”

He reached his free hand to brush against her cheek.

“Don’t you remember what he did to you?’

Norma swallowed. She did remember; of course she did. 

“So why are you protecting him? Wouldn’t it be so easy to just tell me…” He leaned in a little further. Norma couldn’t believe that she’d found Chick endearing at first – he was just another monster who lived within the confines of White Pine Bay, and he wanted her brother’s head. What was she going to do? 

Maybe she should call his bluff.

“Do what you want,” she managed in a wavering voice, “I’m not going to tell you where Caleb is. He’s my brother and I’m not going to hurt him. Just leave him alone.”

Chick’s hand traveled down Norma’s arm.

“I see. So maybe… Maybe you need the decision to be a little…easier.”

“What are you talking about?”

Norma’s heart was beating; it was all that she could hear in her ears, just a steady thump, thump, thump that she couldn’t shut off if she wanted to.

“Norma? You okay?”

She hadn’t heard Alex’s footfalls coming down the steps, but here he was, suddenly behind her and suddenly in the middle of this.

She pulled away from Chick and stared at him, then at Alex.

“Please,” she began, but then hardened her eyes, “You leave me alone.”

“Is there an issue here?” 

Norma swallowed at Alex’s voice. It was so authoritative, so demanding. It was something that had scared her when she’d first met him. He didn’t even need to shout; just the way he said everything made it seem like the person on the receiving end had no choice but which to obey.

“The issue is that your wife,” Chick said the word calmly, “Is harboring someone that I need to speak with. And she may be harboring him in more ways than one. Giving him a place to dock in, if you catch my drift.”

“I actually don’t,” Alex replied. Norma couldn’t look at him.

“Have you been introduced to her darling older brother, by any chance?’

“Stop it!” Norma screamed. She ran at Chick, proceeding to successfully shove him out of the house. Then she turned to Alex.

“What’s…going on here, Norma?”

She swallowed.

“There’s something I need to tell you.”

***

“He wants to kill you! How many times do I have to tell you to leave? Were you always so stupid and stubborn? Did I just block it out all of these years?”

Caleb scratched his ear.

“Yeah, probably,” he replied.

“You should get back to Costa Rica, Caleb. It’s not that I don’t want you here – and I know that Dylan does, he truly does – but it’s not safe. Do you know what it would do to Dylan if you were to get hurt? If Chick were to get what he wants? Wasn’t that why you left in the first place, to spare Dylan?”

“I expected Chick to… to play by some kind of rules. I told him what would happen if he tried to harm Dylan. He didn’t listen.”

“So what’s the answer now, Caleb? A war?”

Caleb pursed his lips.

“No war. I just need to keep an eye on you and Dylan.”

“I don’t need you to watch over us. Alex is fully capable of doing so. Speaking of which… Now he knows about us, so I’m not sure how he’s going to feel if he sees you poking your head around.”

There was a pause, and Caleb bit his lip. He let his hand drape over one of the barn’s wooden ledges.

“I just need to know, Norma. That you’re safe, and that Dylan is. Once Chick moves on, I’ll move on too.”

“But why?”

“Why what?” Caleb asked. 

“Why did you even do all of this? What trouble does this man have with you? He said something about how you beat him up and… stole his wife and kid or something? Did you kidnap some woman, Caleb? …And if so, where is she now…”

Caleb put up his hand.

“I didn’t kidnap anyone. Chick’s wife took off with some of his money when I beat him up – all I did was give her some of the money.”

“Okay, fair enough. But why did you beat this guy up and take his money in the first place?”

She watched Caleb swallow and glared at him.

“Caleb. Tell me the truth.”

“…Dylan needed it for Emma’s lung transplant. She wasn’t going to get moved up the list unless her dad could pay the hospital $20,000. The job paid $25,000 so Dylan figured… But I wasn’t going to let him go. And when we got there it turned out that Chick had set us up. These guys were going to kill us; they had a gun to Dylan’s head and we only barely got out of there… and Dylan was so crushed that he wouldn’t have the money… and I was so mad. So I went after Chick. I wanted to kill him, but I didn’t.”

Norma ran her hands over her face. She wasn’t sure whether she wanted to kiss her brother or wring his neck. How could he have been such an idiot? And yet… he had done this thing for Dylan. He had saved Emma’s life, when he certainly didn’t have to. What if the transplant hadn’t worked?

Caleb would have never breathed a word of this if Chick hadn’t come back. 

Maybe her brother was more than what she thought. Or maybe he was everything she had once thought. 

It was hard to tell where one ended and the other began.

She dragged her hand over her face.

“Caleb, why the hell are you back? What am I even supposed to do with you?”

Caleb smiled.

“I don’t know. Hang out or something, maybe?”

Norma sighed and walked out the door. There were too many men in her life; maybe that was the problem.

***

“Norman, I know you’re upset with me, but you can’t sit here and give me the silent treatment.”

“I don’t have to sit here at all.”

“I know you don’t, Norman.” Norma sighed. Where had her little boy gone, the one who only ever wanted to hold her hand and watch over her when she was sad? Where had she gone so wrong in all of this? 

Now, he hated her, and it had to be all her fault. She could remember every nasty thing Sam had told her ringing in her ears, drowning her.

Even married to Alex, she couldn’t escape Sam… Not ever. He lived on in every lingering self-doubt, every reminder of what she hated about herself.

And now in Norman’s distance and the hate in his eyes. Those eyes were not her own, as much as she wished they were.

“Norman… I did this for you. More than anything in the world, I want you to be safe.”

“I thought,” Norman retorted, “That what you wanted most in the world was to be with me? But I guess that’s wrong, isn’t it! You want your own life, away from me – after telling me all those years that you couldn’t live without me! But I guess it was all a lie. If it’s a lie then go, go Mother! What’s stopping you? It’s not like I can follow you!”

The words rang in her ears all the way home. When she was sure Alex was asleep, she let herself burst into tears.

***  
It was two weeks later when Norma made a decision. Another quick decision, the kind that had a distinct tendency to send her entire life askew. The kind that she would find herself toiling over for hours, unable to sleep, waking up in the middle of the night and panting, wishing that she had answers to any of the things that were plaguing her right now.

Alex had gone along with her decision, even though he hadn’t liked it one bit.

Norman was coming home again, just as Caleb had. Just as every monster in her head that hurt her and scared her continued to walk through her door each time she opened it, her son – who she strained to recognize in the dark, dark eyes he was showing her now. The same eyes that had asked her to let him shoot her in the head and then let him kill himself so that they could be together, no longer part of this world but something without it, something better and eternal. Something pure, he seemed to think.

“It’s going to be all right,” Alex told her as he moved his things out of the house – it would be only temporary, he reminded her. They would be together soon. He loved her and wanted to be with her, wanted to marry her and take care of her too.

When he left, she felt as if a part of herself had been ripped from her. Was this the curse that she was meant to live with? That she had to choose between the two, between her husband and her child? Who could even make that choice?

She was alone.

She stared around at her empty house before she felt something vibrate in her pocket.

Her phone ringing – she took it out and looked at it with a sigh. Caleb. Always Caleb. Would she ever get away from him, and did she really want to?

Right now, the last place she wanted to be was in her big, empty house. She needed to be somewhere and with someone.

She looked at the text message he had sent her – **Miss you, Norma Louise. Free to talk?**

It was like they were kids again, passing notes on the bleachers in high school. 

She texted back: **Yeah. Want me to come to you?**

His response: **Sure. See you up @ the house.**

“The house” was a place Caleb was renting while its owners were out of town, far enough off the beaten path that Chick probably wouldn’t look for him there but also residential enough that it wouldn’t be a completely obvious hideout.

Some days she was still so worried for him. Some days she still worried that he would be murdered right in front of her.

Old habits died hard.

***

“I’m picking up Norman from the hospital in an hour.”

Caleb raised an eyebrow.

“Norma, no offense, but he belongs in the hospital. The kid is… He’s got some problems. You should leave him there.”

“I knew you’d say that,” Norma began, but then she let out a sigh. “And I know that to some extent… You’re right. He does need help. But… I don’t know. Maybe this is more for me than for him. Maybe I really can’t be away from him for that long. I’m probably clingy and horrible and it’s all my fault.”

“You’re not horrible, Norma Louise.”

Caleb reached out to touch her chin, and she flinched away at first.

Then she thought about it. She could remember times when she had been young and confused and afraid, and Caleb had always been there to tell her she was good. That he loved her.

When had it all gotten so twisted that she had to be afraid of the first man she had ever loved? Maybe if they hadn’t been born brother and sister.

But Norman seemed to think things would be better if they hadn’t been mother and son… if they had been, or should be, something else. And yet she had brushed it off.

She brushed it off again, now. She wouldn’t think of it. It had to be something she had just misinterpreted. Caleb’s presence had a distinct way of making everything confusing. 

She didn’t want to think about it and yet… there was something there. Some pull that she didn’t and would never understand. 

Norma leaned in and pressed her lips against Caleb’s, as if that could somehow shut the voices off in her head that were telling her that everything in her life was wrong. 

She felt him react, shocked at first, and then when he kissed her back, she nearly swooned.

She began to snake her tongue into his mouth, closing her eyes and trying desperately not to think – and if she thought, she knew she would stop.

She didn’t want to stop.

Caleb slowly pulled back and looked at her.

“Norma Louise?”

Then it hit her, all at once.

She ran to the door and she kept on running until she was home.

***

“Alex?” Norma’s voice was timid, quiet. She’d snuck away to his house – his old house, she corrected in her head – after she’d gotten Norman set up back at home. 

“Hey, Norma!” Alex walked into the living room with a big smile on his face and his arms wide. “I missed you.”

She ran into his arms, crying softly.

“I messed it up. I messed it all up… I’m the worst, you should leave me. I don’t deserve you I…”

“Wait, Norma, Norma, Norma. Slow it down okay. What happened?” he touched her chin and picked it up gently. “Do we need to bury a body? I’ll get the truck.”

Norma managed a sad laugh and pressed her head against his shoulder.

“I kissed Caleb,” she mumbled.

Alex pushed her back a little, but gently.

“Did you want to kiss him?”

She nodded timidly.

“I… I think I still… have feelings. I don’t know why. Why am I so messed up, I can’t…”

“Norma, you know that’s normal right?”

She shook her head.

“Nothing about this is normal!”

“Norma.” Alex put his hands on her waist and held her tight. “It’s okay to love more than one person. Do you still love me?”

“Of course!” She was starting to choke up. Of course she loved him – he had accepted all the hell, all the horror she had presented him with and still kept coming back.

“Well then if you want to be with me… but you also want to be with him… then you know what we’ve got to do.”

Norma looked at him wide-eyed.

“Ch-choose, right?”

Alex shook his head.

***

Norma and Alex stepped into the light.

They could see Caleb staring between them, looking at them with a bit of obvious anxiety, probably wondering where this was going as much as Norma was.

Were they really going to go through with this plan? This wasn’t something people actually did, was it? It seemed like something out of a movie or a book. Maybe it had been in a book; something Swedish, Norma thought.

“Caleb, considering what’s been going on with Chick, I think you should stay at the motel.”

“Isn’t that the worst place for me to be?” Caleb asked. “That’s just where he’ll look.”

“Anywhere else, you won’t have a sheriff protecting you.”

Caleb paused.

“Why would you want to protect me?”

“Come with us.”

***

Norma let out a huge sigh as she sat on the bed in Room 1. 

“So that’s how we do this, now? We came up with these rules and now, as long as we stick by them… Nobody gets hurt? And all three of us… do this?”

“That’s right,” Alex told her.

“…Have you ever done anything like this before?”

“Not exactly. I mean, I’ve been in all open relationships before, but I haven’t ever… this is a first for me. But considering everything that’s gone on… I think it’s best if we were all here for this.”

“And you’re okay with what I said, Caleb? I mean, I’m just not there yet with the… everything, you know…”

“That’s completely okay, Norma. We’re just do touching, and me going down on you. That’s completely okay with me. Nothing more.”

Norma breathed a sigh of relief. The whole situation was still really weird, but she was starting to feel slightly less anxious about it.

“Maybe you two – maybe I would feel less nervous if you two did something.”

“Like what?” Alex asked.

“Like kiss.”

The two of them stared at each other for a very long time, before Caleb reached out and placed his hand on the back of Alex’s neck. They looked back at Norma, and then very slowly moved their faces together, letting their lips brush against each other.

At some point, Alex must have put his tongue in Caleb’s mouth, and Norma wasn’t quite sure what she was thinking or feeling.

But it was something that, somehow, was good.

She felt oddly safe, and she felt her hand traveling downward, followed by an interrupting pang of jealous.

“Boys – don’t leave me out in the cold, now.”

It had sounded a lot more like Mae West in her mind. But it seemed to work somehow – they stopped what they were doing and moved closer to her on the bed.

Alex reached under her dress and began to slowly pull off her panties.

“You’re sure now?”

She nodded.

Alex proceeded to strip off his pants, followed by his boxers. She found herself transfixed.

“Maybe try sitting on me, and then he can sit in front and…?” he suggested.

She shuffled back, nervously putting her hands on Alex’s shoulders and then sitting back, letting him slip inside her. She shivered. This wasn’t something she had ever done – she was so used to lying on her back, feeling like she was letting it happen, or needing it to happen for some kind of greater good, some better goal.

She felt Alex put his hands on her hips to steady her.

“Hello there,” he said in a gentle tone. She felt salt spring to her eyes. She brushed it away as she saw Caleb sit in front of her, lazily leaning on his elbows like he was watching a game in a park in the grass. 

“I can’t believe this is happening,” she whispered.

“Do you like it so far?”

Alex’s voice was so gentle. She nodded, turning her head a little. She wanted to see him, needed to see him. But she wanted to see Caleb, too.

That was surprising. She reached out and put a gentle hand on his shoulder.

“It’s okay,” she whispered, “You can…”

Norma watched as Caleb’s tongue flickered out of his mouth. Then, all she saw was his sandy brown hair beneath her fingers.

She rubbed against his scalp as she felt his tongue flicking gently against her clit.

“Should I sort of… move up and down on you, Alex? Would that be good for you?”

“This is perfectly fine for me, Norma – I’m worried about you, I want to know what’s going to be good for you, okay?”

Norma smiled. 

“I feel very… oh! Relaxed.”

Caleb kept up his motions, and Norma tried to push it all back. All the fractured trust, the broken promises of their youth. She wasn’t a kid anymore; she was a grown woman and maybe this whole thing was twisted – it was probably twisted. But it didn’t hurt, didn’t ache, wasn’t making her feel bad or ashamed and so she shifted on Alex’s member and leaned back a little into his arms.

Maybe it was because of him that she felt so safe. 

There was probably some psychology behind it, but what good had that ever done her?

She shut her eyes and gasped out both their hands, tightened her hands in Caleb’s hair and leaned back into Alex, her firm support.

“I’m going to…”

And she felt Alex’s arms tightened around her waist, keeping her steady all over again, as she let it all go, once and for all.

***

They were sleeping, the three of them.

He couldn’t believe what he had just seen.

The sheriff had been bad enough, but now he had roped that horrible man back into her life? Why couldn’t she see what he was up to, the devious things his mind had in store for her?

They should be glad that they were sleeping.

Because then they wouldn’t have to see what came next.


End file.
